An Unexpected Christmas
by XxLynChanxX
Summary: Toralei and Clawdeen never got over their feud. They graduated and went on with life, not knowing that they lived right across the hall from each other. On Christmas Eve, they both go out to finish up Christmas shopping. What they think will be a short elevator trip becomes a power outage, and the two are forced to spend Christmas together. Talk about an unexpected Christmas.


Clawdeen let out a frustrated sigh as she shuffled through her apartment, attempting to make sense of everything. How could it be Christmas already? The months had flown by, and the approaching of the New Year almost scared her. It felt like just yesterday, she had graduated high school with her beast ghoulfriends - but now, she was living in a run-down flat trying to make ends meet while in college attempting to earn a degree in fashion.

Letters and bills piled up on the kitchen counter, and as she ignored the**OVERDUE** stamps on the outside half of the envelopes, she snatched the nicer looking mail she had received.

Already, cards were overflowing on the shelves of her home, and as expected, she had found Holiday Wishes from her old friends and distant family, in addition to a few checks or gift cards as last-minute gifts.

...gifts.

Oh, goodness, how could she have forgotten?

What with her job, and school, and everything else in between - she barely had anytime to realize that this holiday meant one thing. Tomorrow, when she'd leave for the family reunion... she'd be empty-handed. She thought she was on top of things when she sent out Lagoona's presents. She'd thought she was done shopping, but she still had to buy gifts for her parents, her siblings, her aunts, her uncles, and whoever else was turning up to the damn reunion. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door of her flat, gift ideas running through her mind.

**_~xoxo~_**

Toralei held back a scream as she flew through her apartment, trying to find the presents she had set aside for Purrsephone. How she had sent out Meowlody's and not Purrsephone's, Toralei wasn't sure, but as she literally tore her apartment apart, the orange werecat realized that she didn't have Purrsephone's at all.

"What. The. _Hell?_" she growled.

It was Christmas Eve, and the stores would be packed with monsters who, like her, needed to buy that last present. How could she have lost a state-of-the-art hair styling kit? It wasn't like it was something small. The thing was huge. She checked the time on her iCoffin. There was still plenty of time to go out, buy something to make up for it, and get back in time to one-day-rush it to Purrsephone.

Eventually, Toralei gave up and, with couch fluff littering her hair; she grabbed her purse, ready to brace the maul crowds. She attempted to fix her appearance, but decided against it as she bolted out the door and strolled down the hall, straight down to the line of elevators at the end. Pressing a button, she impatiently stood waiting, checking her watch every other second to see how long it'd take for a stupid elevator to open up.

Finally, one of them in the middle slowly dinged and opened up, which summoned her to immediately rush in, thankful it was empty. Switching the ground floor button, Toralei was just about to head down, only before someone held open the door, and slid in quickly.

"Stripe?" a voice said, and it summoned the werecat to look up - suddenly shocked at who she saw.

"Fido?" Toralei replied, with a raised eyebrow.

Toralei inwardly groaned. This was the last thing she needed. Thankfully, they only lived on the third floor. They would be out of the elevator before too long.

"What are you doing here?" Clawdeen asked as Toralei jammed the **_1_** button.

"Not that it's your business, Fido, but I have shopping to do." Toralei didn't bother asking what Clawdeen was up to. She didn't care. She just wanted to-

-the elevator lurched. The light said they were on the second floor, but Toralei knew how long the elevator took to change floors. There was no way they could be on the second floor, and besides, the elevator wouldn't stop on the second floor unless somebody had pushed the button.

"What's going on?" Clawdeen asked, pressing the **_1_** repeatedly.

A moment passed, only before Toralei put two and two together, taking a look at the light, and back to Clawdeen, who had now resorted to pressing all of the buttons at once, just to get the stupid thing moving again.

"I think the thing's stuck," the werecat said slowly.

"Oh no, I am _not_ spending my Christmas Eve stuck on an elevator with you, Stripe."

"What, like I'm jumping for joy? I didn't ask the thing to get stuck. You think I want to spend my Christmas with you?" Toralei pulled her iCoffin out of her purse and groaned.

"What?"

"There's no signal. I was going to call the elevator operator and have him get us out."

"How do you have his number?" Clawdeen asked. Toralei rolled her eyes and pointed to a faded sign.

**_ICE, Call 729-572-8264_**

Feeling a bit stupid, the shewolf gave a halfhearted shrug and let out a frustrated sigh as she ran a hand through her hair. "You think someone would hear us if we yelled for help?" she suggested.

"Doubt it," Toralei remarked. "The walls in this place are pretty thick, and even if someone did hear screaming, well-" She bit back a smirk, because the glare flickering in Clawdeen's golden eyes said enough.

"Still the same stupid cat," she muttered, as she began banging on the door.

"Maybe if you start howling, somebody will think they left their dog out," Toralei remarked, with a light chuckle.

Clawdeen let out a light growl, and shook her head. "Only _you_ can make a joke at a moment like this," she spat.

Toralei shrugged and leaned against the wall. She wondered how long they had before the elevator started working again. She knew she had about seven hours before it was officially too late to get the last few things she needed. There was no way that they'd be stuck for seven hours, right?

_**~xoxo~**_

Two hours later, Clawdeen was still panicking and Toralei had taken to grooming her hair. There was a nice pile of cotton fluff beside her when Clawdeen finally spoke again. "Can't you be useful?" she snapped.

"What am I supposed to do, kibble-breath? Snap my fingers and say Alakazam?"

"You could be looking for a way out you know. Don't these things have fire escapes or something?"

"This building is over thirty years old. The elevator doesn't have any form of escape. If it did, do you honestly think I would be sitting here with you?"

Toralei rolled her eyes, and shook her head. "Trust me; I wanna spend Christmas with my friends. Not some bitch." She noticed Clawdeen's glare burn brighter, and she backtracked on her words. "I was using the word for its literal reason."

"Sure you were," the shewolf huffed, as she got back up and went back to slamming her fist against the ancient aluminum doors of the elevator, in hopes someone - anyone - would hear it.

"No use. They can't hear you," Toralei said with a shrug.

"At least I'm trying!" Clawdeen snapped. "You're just sitting there doing nothing!"

"There's nothing we can do," the werecat argued. "We'll just have to wait until someone comes around, and helps us out."

Clawdeen let out an exasperated sigh, rolling her eyes. "That could take days!" she shot back. "And if we don't do anything, we could be trapped in here for a week, possibly into the New Year!"

"We aren't staying in here for that long. Nice to know you're still as over dramatic as you were five years ago."

"Shut up," Clawdeen practically barked. "I'm not dramatic."

"Oh, really?" Toralei laughed. "Yeah, whatever you say, Fido." She shook her head, and smirked, ignoring the shewolf's rude consistent glaring. "You know, you think you would've dropped that stupid grudge you had against me for so long. It's not like I ruined high school for you or anything."

"You never missed an opportunity to make some snide comment..."

"Yet, you're alive. I knew my limits. I didn't get into anything personal."

"Doesn't mean it didn't hurt." Clawdeen muttered. She let out a frustrated sigh, and slumped up against the door, sliding down to sit on the floor across from Toralei, who was now just staring at the tile floor to avoid any sort of eye contact.

"If it makes you feel any better," she murmured. "I regret what I said, y'know. Everything I did, too."

"That's what they all say," Clawdeen grumbled, as she decided to occupy herself by killing boredom and flipping through the photos on her phone.

Toralei rolled her eyes, and sat up properly, now managing to look at the shewolf. "I mean it, though," she said. "I know it's probably too late, and it sounds stupid - but I know what I did was immature and well... I kinda feel bad insulting a bunch of ghouls who never did anything to me."

Another moment of silence passed by, only before Clawdeen never looked up from her phone, but responded with a simple, "Why did you do it?"

Toralei didn't know how to reply. Why _did_ she do all those things? Clawdeen had never done anything to her. None of the monsters at Monster High had done anything to her, yet Toralei had been terrible to everyone.

"I don't know," Toralei said quietly. "I just...I don't know."

"You don't know why you ruined the lives of at least eight different ghouls?"

"Look, even if I had a reason, it wouldn't be a good one, alright?" she responded, in a tone that was a tad bit too harsh. She sort of backed off, flickering her emerald eyes back to the floor. "I've learned there's never a good reason to hurt anyone."

This statement summoned Clawdeen to look up, slightly puzzled, with a raised eyebrow.

Did _the_ Toralei Stripe just say that?

Toralei was the queen of pointless torment. There was no way she was regretting the years of shit she'd given Clawdeen and her friends.

"I don't wanna talk about it, okay?" Toralei said after a while. Clawdeen just nodded slowly.

She still didn't believe it, though. Or at least... she didn't _want_ to believe it.

Then again, a lot could happen in five years.

"Did you get a taste of your own medicine?" Clawdeen thought, only before she realized that she had voiced it. Immediately, she regretted it - for a reason she didn't quite know.

Toralei looked up hesitantly, and gave a small shrug. "You could say that," she muttered, as she twirled a lock of hair around one of her claws.

Clawdeen wanted to press the issue, but she knew Toralei wouldn't tell her. If the situations were reversed, Clawdeen wouldn't say anything either.

"So," Toralei said, as she cleared her throat, trying to break the awkward tension. "What have you been doing these days?"

"Nothing much," Clawdeen admitted.

Did Stripe actually want to talk to her? Or was this just some stupid reel-in to make fun of her some more, even after all of these years?

"I go to college for fashion, and I work," she continued. "That's it, really." She looked up, and noticed Toralei's blank expression. "What about you?" She held back making a rude comment - she didn't want to be just as bad.

Toralei shrugged. "Not too much. I have a job or whatever, but I'm going to school online mostly. Not too much goes on when you dedicate your high school life to making everyone miserable."

There it was - again.

Almost like it was begging to be asked again - the reason why.

Instead, Clawdeen just nodded like she understood and went back to messing around on her phone, flipping through pictures. Finally, after many photos of her friends - she had finally landed on the gallery of her family.

She missed them. A lot. From her sister Howleen (who wasn't nearly as bratty as she used to be) to her half-normie cousin Cerise, even her crazy grandmother Harriet.

And to think, instead of spending the howliday with them, she was stuck in an elevator with her high-school nemesis.

Clawdeen looked at the ghoul opposite her. "What are your plans, if we ever get out of here?"

"Plans?"

"For Christmas. I'm supposed to be heading out for a family reunion tomorrow morning."

Toralei hesitated, and gave a half-hearted shrug. "Don't know," she replied. "Maybe I'll watch some stupid howliday movies on TV, enjoy the presents my friends sent out to me, eat some junk food... that's pretty much it."

"What about _your_ family?" the shewolf questioned. "Everybody's got somebody, right?"

"I don't keep in touch with my family anymore," the werecat said quickly. "We just... don't get along."

"Oh," Clawdeen murmured. She wouldn't know what that was like - having no one. Even if she felt alone, she always had someone in her family to turn to, no matter how distant. Wolves were known for their loyalty. "Well, why don't your friends invite you?"

"They did," Toralei responded. "But I decided not to go. They got their own deals, and I don't wanna crash their party."

"I'm sure they would have loved to have you," Clawdeen said, unsure as to why she was trying to be nice.

"Trust me, they don't need me around. Meowlody has kids, and Purrsephone just lives too far. I'd have to get a hotel, which I can't afford, or stay with her, and she doesn't have the room."

Clawdeen fell silent, looking down at the floor. Suddenly, she felt almost sort of sorry for Toralei. Had she always been this lonely?

"Well," the shewolf hesitated, only before Toralei cut her off.

"Since when were you ever this nice to me, Wolf?" she questioned. "Is it something you want? Or what?"

With a light scowl, Clawdeen rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Fine," she muttered. "Forget I said anything."

Clawdeen tried pushing the buttons again, growling quietly when they lit up but didn't move the elevator.

"What time is it?" Clawdeen asked. She had drained most of her battery looking through pictures, and didn't want to risk it dying on her.

"It's almost eight."

"We've been in here for three hours?!" Clawdeen asked, her eyes widening. "The mall closes in an hour, and I still need to buy enough stuff for my family!"

"Yeah, and I'm supposed to be getting Seph a hair styling kit, but it looks like she'll have to do without this year. Do you ever get tired of complaining about things beyond everyone's control?"

"Look," the shewolf muttered, as she let out a deep breath. "I don't like this anymore than you do, but you're only gonna make it worse if you keep making stupid remarks like that!"

Toralei paused, and took a moment to think, only before she relented in Clawdeen's statement. "You're right," she muttered, scratching the back of her neck.

A moment of silence passed, only before Clawdeen blinked slowly, and looked back. "What did you say?" she asked softly.

"I said you're right, ok?" Toralei admitted. "I know I need an attitude adjustment."

She sighed and pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. In about four hours, she would officially be spending Christmas with Clawdeen.

"It was just after high school," Toralei said softly. Clawdeen looked over to Toralei, wondering if she was getting the story Toralei had been referencing for the past hour. "I moved here, because it was cheap, and I had nowhere else to go. I met this one ghoul, and she lived with me for two years."

"Ghoul?" Clawdeen asked.

"Yeah, ghoul. Got a problem?"

"No, it's fine. Keep going..."

Toralei released a deep breath, and continued with her tale. "She was an artist. French, I think. She used to go to school with us, and she was real nice." Her expression faltered. "And I broke her. Too many rude comments, my attitude got the best of me and she left." She bit her lip, and didn't dare let a tear fall. "But before she left, she put me in my place. Told me off, and pointed out all of the flaws I had. How much a witch I really was."

A moment of silence passed, only before Toralei let out a breathless laugh, and gave a bittersweet smile.

"It was a real shock to me, y'know?" she muttered. "It was just the way I had always been, but then I realized that I shouldn't have ever been that way. And then... all of the monsters I had ever been cruel to came to mind."

"So, yeah. There you go. Happy now?"

"I...I didn't know," Clawdeen said, trying to picture the ghoul that had put Toralei down.

"Well, you know what happened now, so there. I _did_ get a taste of my own medicine." Toralei confessed. "It's your choice if you wanna believe whether or not if I'm truly sorry. But when I apologize, know that I mean it."

Another moment of silence passed, only before Clawdeen gave a small nod. "Ok, Stripe," she murmured. "I get it." She hesitated, and took a minute to think. "It might take a while, but I think I might forgive you... maybe."

"I don't expect you to right away," the werecat said simply. "But I hope we can at least not be at each other's throats constantly anymore." She looked up, and gave a hopeful smile. "So, what do you say, Clawdeen?"

The shewolf stopped, in shock for a solid second.

In the whole history of knowing Toralei, never did either of them ever refer to each other by name - it was always _Fido_ or _Stripe_ or _Wolf_ or _stupid dog,_ anything along those lines.

"I'd-" Clawdeen stammered, only before she somehow found herself returning the smile. "I'd like that a lot... Toralei."

Saying the name out loud... Clawdeen sort of found it almost beautiful now. Exotic, even.

Clawdeen tried to push the thought out of her head and she sat in the corner, leaning her head on the wall. She didn't care about Toralei, or her name. She just wanted to get out of the elevator.

_**~xoxo~**_

"Hey, Clawdeen, wake up," Toralei shook the werewolf awake and Clawdeen blinked, looking around.

"Are we moving?" she asked, half asleep.

"No, there's a minute until Christmas. I figured if we're gonna be here in this shithole, we might as well spend Christmas together, right?" Toralei's watch beeped and Clawdeen smiled.

"Merry Christmas, Stripe."

"You too, Wolf." Toralei returned the smile and was surprised when Clawdeen opened her arms for a hug. The werecat gave Clawdeen the hug just as the elevator lurched to life.

"It's a Christmas miracle," Toralei said, with a light chuckle as she stood up, and outstretched her hand, willing to help Clawdeen up.

With a small smile, the shewolf took the werecat's hand in her own, and rose to her feet at the same moment the doors opened up.

An odd moment of silence passed as the two of them exited the elevator, only before Clawdeen turned to her former enemy. "Listen, Stri- ...Toralei. I was thinking," she murmured, looking up and meeting the werecat's green eyed gaze. "It sucks for anyone to be alone on the holidays, especially Christmas and, well..." She hesitated, about to continue, only before Toralei cut her off.

"I know what you're going to say, and my answer is no," she replied. "If you think I'm going to join you on your family reunion-"

"-my family is racist against cats." Clawdeen declared. "Trust me; my one uncle would probably shoot you if he saw you. So, since that's a no, I want you to go see those friends of yours." She fished one of her gift cards out of her purse and handed it to Toralei. "Go on, and use this. It's got a ton of airline and hotel miles or whatever on it. I'm sure it's enough to let you stay for a day or two and come back home."

Stunned at the offer, Toralei hesitated, and shook her head. "I can't, I-"

"I'm in the howliday mood of giving, you stupid cat," Clawdeen said, with a light chuckle. "Take it. Have yourself a Merry Christmas, ok?"

A pause happened, only before the werecat reached out and reluctantly took the card, returning a smile to the shewolf. "Thanks," she replied.

"No problem," Clawdeen replied. She expected Toralei to walk out of the lobby but she didn't, even as other monsters started passing by - both ghouls just stared at each other. An awkward silence formed as they stood there, waiting for one of them to walk off.

"I, um," Clawdeen said, trying to figure out what to say. She was staring at Toralei now, looking into the werecat's bright green eyes.

"Merry Christmas," Toralei said for what felt like the thousandth time.

"You too," Clawdeen replied. Again.

"Have fun at your reunion."

"I will. Have fun with your friends."

"I will."

Still, neither of them moved. They continued to stand still, staring at each other. Toralei bit her lower lip.

"You know what?" Clawdeen suggested. "My family always says cash is the best gift - I don't need to go shopping." She hesitated, and gave a hopeful smile. "Since I don't wanna be alone on Christmas, and neither do you, wanna come back to my place? I'll make some hot chocolate and we'll catch a random special or movie. It'll be a new start for us... as friends."

Instantly, Toralei's expression turned from nervous to delighted as she smiled back. "I'd like that," she purred.

"I'll even drive you to the airport tomorrow morning so we can get out of here. For now though, we'll watch some normie Christmas movie up in my room."

"That sounds great, but... can we take the stairs?"

With a light chuckle, Clawdeen nodded. "That sounds like a good idea," she murmured, and as the two of them headed through the lobby, she was suddenly surprised as Toralei leaned forward, placing a quick kiss on her cheek. "What-"

"Tradition," the werecat defended, as she pointed up to the ceiling, where some employee of the building must've thought it'd be funny to hang mistletoe.

Clawdeen looked up, a might bit shocked, but somehow, a smile slightly widened, and she gently reached forward, taking Toralei's hand in her own.

"You win that one," she laughed.

With that said, the two ghouls shared yet another smile.

Ok, so their Christmas Eve wasn't ideal at all, and it almost ended in disaster, but somehow, someway, a miracle was maybe shining through...

**_~ The (cheesy) end ~_**

**_Cowritten by 'a kiss of winter'_**


End file.
